Tornado Reanalysis (TornadoMaster)
Introduction This is a list of tornadoes that should have been rated differently than they were. This page is controversial and discussion is open in the comments. Please do not delete tornadoes off of this list, but feel free to add them! Tuscaloosa, Alabama tornado of 2011 The 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado was an extremely powerful and violent tornado that struck the city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27 2011 during the 2011 super outbreak. The tornado did significant damage to Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas. The tornado had a width of 1.5 miles and a track of 80.68 miles. The tornado destroyed homes and apartment complexes with winds up to a supposed 190 mph. There was evidence of EF5 in several areas. There was an apartment complex that was almost completely destroyed and a home near it was swept clean off of its foundation. It was a small home but well built. The only reason that it was not rated EF5 is because the tree damage was not EF5 damage. What the NWS did not think of is that tornadoes have gusty winds (duh). Below are some pictures of the damage. The tornado was clearly a multiple vortex tornado that may have contributed to the fact that there was not tree damage consistent to EF5 damage. My guess is that is was a stronger vortex that hit the house sweeping it ioff of its foundation, while weaker vortices were surrounding it in this mess of vortices. Let me know what you think below. As you can see in the images, this tornado did have pockets of EF5 tornado damage. More EF5 damage is seen below. Chickasha, Oklahoma tornado of 2011 The Chickash, Oklahoma tornado was a violent officially rated EF4 tornado. Along the tornadoe’s path, there was extreme damage in chickasha and Newcastle. The tornado dissipated shortly before going into Moore. If the tornado kept going, it could have gone into south Moore. There was severe ground scouring and one home was swept clean off of its foundation. While the Tuscaloosa tornado was more controversial, this tornado clearly had EF5 damage. It is only a wonder why the tornado was rated EF4 instead of EF5. All of the damage indicators are here @NWS. Washington - Goldsby tornado of 2011 The Washington - Goldsby was a clear EF5 tornado, the national weath r service didn’t rate it so. This is one of those instances where the NWS listed the tornado as an EF4 with 200 mph winds. When the NWS rated tornadoes this way, you know that it is inaccurate in most cases. There were several homes that were swept clean off of their foundations due to extreme winds. Below are some pictures of the incredible damage. As you can see in the images, the house was damaged in extreme damage which is EF5. This is yet another tornado that the National Weather Service made a huge mistake on. They should really reconsider this rating. Vilonia, Arkansas Tornado of 2014 The Vilonia tornado was an extremely powerful EF4 tornado that struck the town of Mayflower and Vilonia on the evening of April 27, 2014. In the damage survey, Vilonia had a neighborhood that was leveled with homes left with bare slabs. There was much controversy if this should have been rated EF5. The homes were not built to code however. There were a few homes that had anchors in their foundations, but there were no washers present, making it rated EF4, but that type of damage should be rated EF5. Below are some images of the extreme damage. As you can see from the images, there was extreme damage. This tornado should not have been rated EF4, instead it should have received EF5 due to those homes that did have anchor bolts. Rochelle, IL tornado of 2015 This tornado is literally one of the biggest mistakes of the National Weather Service. This tornado was rated as an EF4 tornado with winds of 200 mph. This means that the NWS did not want to make this tornado an EF5. There really shouldn’t be much left a discussion with this storm becuase it was 1 mph short of EF5. Below are some images of the extreme damage. Chapman, KS tornado of 2016 The Chapman, Kansas tornado was a mid range EF4 tornado that was extremely violent and long tracked. This tornado is very controversial in the sense that I am saying that it should have been rated EF5. This tornado was fairly rated, it is the wind speeds and possible tracks it could have taken. If this tornado had gone through the main part of Chapman, it would be an obvious EF5. Regardless of the rating, this was one violent tornado. Damage pictures below. Lee County tornado of 2019 On march 3, 2019, an early season tornado outbreak took place in Alabama. The strongest tornado in the Outbreak was this tornado, with over 20 fatalities, it was the deadliest tornado since 2013. This tornado was extremely violent and was a mile wide at times. The tornado was also long tracked, with a path of over 25 miles. This tornado was rated low end EF4 with winds up to 170 mph on its track. This tornado did however, have a stronger vertical velocity reading than the Canton, TX tornado of 2017 proving that this tornado could have been an EF5 somewhere along its track. This would have happened while it was going over a field. I will show the pictures of the vertical velocity below and compare it to the Canton TX tornado. As you can see from the images, this tornado had winds above 190 mph at some points. Below are some of the images of the extreme damage in Lee County after the tornado. Linwood, KS tornado of 2019 The Linwood, Kansas tornado was an extremely violent and long tracked tornado that took place on May 28, 2019. This tornado was officially rated low end EF4, but this tornado likely reached EF5 intensity along its track. The vertical velocity reading was stronger than the Canton, TX tornado in 2017, which was rated mid range EF4, proving that this tornado most likely had wind gusts above 200 mph. This tornado reached that intensity right before it reached Linwood, over a field. The vertical velocities are shown in images below. As you can see in the images, neither of the Canton, TX rotations are as strong as the Linwood rotation. This shows that the Linwood tornado was a likely EF5 tornado along its path. Also, there were many homes that were under construction were completely destroyed. Many people agree that if this tornado had taken a direct hit on Linwood, it would’ve been EF5. Elk Mound Tornado of 2019 On September 24, 2019, a strong tornado touched down, ravaging the towns of Elk Mound and Wheaton Wisconsin. I will be going through a survey giving my personal rating using the indicator sheets from the National Weather Service. Results are below. The image we have here is what appears to be storage units. This would classify in the lower bound warehouse building. Most or all of the walls appear to be collapsed. I am going to assume that the walls are collapsed, so this gets a rating of high end EF2 with winds of 131 mph. As you see in this image, this appears to be an expected single story house that had its roof torn off. Based off of the damage, I would rate this house mid range EF2 with 122 mph winds. This is the worst of the damage from the tornado, so this will be the final rating. In this image, you can see the extreme damage, with the whole house gone, debris landed in the center of the house. This house is controversial because it all depends on if it had anchor bolts. If the house did indeed have anchor bolts, then it is rated at EF4 with winds of 170mph. But, if the house does not have anchor bolts, it is only rated mid range EF3. I will try to find more images to see if the house had anchor bolts. Also, there were some cinder blocks that were knocked over. One more thing to take into consideration is the ground scouring observed. The ground scouring seems to be impressive. They might take that into consideration if they do rate it EF4 with 170mph winds. But they have it rated EF3 right now. Official Rating: Personally, I would rate this tornado EF4 with winds of 166 mph based on the fact that the house was completely destroyed and part of the cinder block wall was pushed over. Category:Tornadoes Category:Violent Tornadoes Category:Tornado Reanalysis Category:Costly Tornadoes Category:Deadly Tornadoes Category:Catastrophic Tornadoes Category:TornadoMaster